Abstract

Nigeria's electoral process has been confronted with daunting and enormous challenges which bedevil the conduct of elections considered free, fair and acceptable both within the country and internationally. But a more crucial problem in Nigeria's electoral system is that of vote buying (and vote selling). This study exposes the nature of vote buying (and selling) as a form of electoral malpractice whose root causes may be linked to illiteracy, poverty and a zero-sum game of political exclusion. Overall, Nigeria needs to fight illiteracy, poverty and the practice of constitutional engineering if it is to be able to hold credible elections.